Process of making compo-board.



PATENTED JULY 18, 1905.

G. S. MAYHBW.

PROCESS OF MAKING GOMPU BOARD.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 23, 1904.

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No. 794,873. I PATBNTED JULY 18, 1905.

G. S. MAYHBW. PROCESS OF MAKING GOMPO BOARD.

No. 794,878- PATENTED JULY 18, 1905. G. S. MAYHBW.

PROCESS OF MAKING COMPO BOARD.

APPLIOATION FILED NOV. 23, 1904.

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No. 794,878. PATENTED JULY 18,.1905. G. S. MAYHEW.

PROCESS OF MAKING OO-MPO BOARD.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 23, 19.04.

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Wc'zwseJi' UNITED STATES Patented July is, 1905'.

PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE \VILLIAM MELLOR, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

PROCESS OF MAKING COIVIPO-BOARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No.

794,873, dated July 18, 1905.

Application filed November 23,190 Serial No. 233,977.

' To all whom it may concern.- I Be it known that I, GEORGE SKAATS MAY-HEW, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at 2 Basinghallavenue, in the city and county of London, England, have invented a newand useful Improved Process of Making CompoBoard, of which the followingis a specification.

The present invention relates to improvelU ments in the process formanufacturing compounds or composition boards.

Compounds or composition boards, com monly known in the trade ascompoboards, consist, essentially, of a core or sheet [5 of woodcomposed of one or more layers or pieces of wood cemented together attheir edges and inclosed between layers of veneer or thick paper orcardboard.

The compo-board produced by the present invention is perfectly smoothand uniformly sound, the chances of an imperfect product beingpractically eliminated.

My invention. is more particularly described with reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 shows a number of boardsassembled to make a compound deal. Fig. 2 shows a similar deal formed ofpieces of wood of all lengths and sizes. Fig. 3 shows a slice 0 cut fromthe face of the deal on the lines A B of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 shows threeslices, such as shown in Fig. 23, joined together at their longitudinaledges. Fig. 5 shows a board as formed in the final assembling-machinefrom 5 pieces cut from the board shown in Fig. 4 on the lines O D, E F,the edges H and K, L and M. being joined, respectively, to form theboard shown. Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sec tion of an assembling-machinefor forming the continuous compo-board, and Fig. 7 is a plan view of thesame. Figs. 8, 9, 10, and 11 are detail views of certain parts of saidmachine; and Figs. 12 and 13 illustrate an apparatus to be used inconnection with said machine for the purpose of feeding a cementingmaterial to the compound board between the core and one or both of thefacing-strips thereof.

' Referring now to the drawings, the new process is carried into effectin the following manner. In order to keep the price low, waste wood ornearly waste wood must be employed, and these pieces are of relativelysmall and irregular sizes both as to thick ness, length, and breadth, asshown in Fig. 2. These pieces of wood are first thoroughly dried, thensmoothed, and instead of being cut into small strips are oined togetherinto a compound deal or block, a very small quan tity of thin strongwaterproofed glue size or other waterproof material being used to jointhem by aid of pressure. The outside edges of these pieces of woodmaking up the compound deal and forming the faces of said deal presentthe saw-surface they have when they come from the sawmill in theassembling apparatus, and when these compound deals are passed throughthe slicing, &e., machines in the process of forming cores they arealways worked against a firm guide or back on one side when they arepressed together, and if any of the sections formed are wider than theintended thickness of the deal to be made the projecting part is removedas the compound deal leaves the assemblingmachine by means of a circularsaw arrange at the end of the machine. It will be readily understoodthat such a compound block may be practically of any size. For instance,it may be made so thin as to render a resawing only once necessary tomake two thicknesses of the thinnest board which can be made, or

it may be of any thickness that can be conveniently handled-say siXinches thick. Its width will naturally be limited in practice to thewidth which can be most economically cut with a band-saw. It may be ofany desired length. A convenient size, however, for these blocks ordeals is about three inches thick, twelve feet three inches long, andone foot wide. This size of deal is adapted for making a core forcompo-boards four or six feet wide. The compound deal passes from theassembling-machine to the slicing-machine with two saw-faces and twoplaned 5 edges and is of accurately uniform. width, so

shown in Fig. 4. To form such a board, the

that each slice cut from its face will be of ex- I actly the same widththroughout its entire length.

The deal formed from the pieces of wood as above described is thoroughlydried and then cut into thin composite boards, as shown in Fig. 3,either by slicing off one thin piece at a time from the face of the dealor else by cutting the deal into two pieces and subdividing it againinto four, and so on.

By the slicing-machine the boards shown in Fig. 3 are produced on theone side sawcut and the other side planed smooth if said board is cutoff from the deal one piece at a time; but if the deal is subdivided itsfaces are dressed smooth to enable joints to be made with as small anamount of cementing material as possible.

If the sections as shown in Fig. 3 have been cut from a compound dealone foot wide and twelve feet three inches in length, three of themjoined together edge to edge will make a compound board three feet wideand twelve feet three inches in length, as

edges to be joined are coated with waterproof glue size or otherwaterproof cementing material and are joined together edge to edge, withthe planed face down, in an assembling-machine. The thin boards are heldso firmly down to the bed-plate of said assembling-machine that therecan be no projection of one edge beyond the other, and so small anamount of cementing material is applied that practically no excess isforced out of the face of the board during the process of assembling.Should, however, any cementing material be forced out, it can be removedon passing through the assembling-machine by revolving brushes anddusters. The boards after being joined in the assemblingmachine areallowed to set until the glue is well hardened and finally dried.

In order to make a compo-board of the same size as that now in use inthe trade-i. 0., four feet in width-these compound thin boards having awidth of three feet, a length of twelve feet three inches, and possiblya slightly varying thickness are first run through a singlesurfacing-machine, which takes off the saw-marks from the side notalready planed and smoothed and reduces the wide thin board to a uniformthickness and smoothness. The boards are then cut into lengths offorty-nine inches, (indicated by the lines C D, E F on Fig. 4,) andtheboards thus formed are fed into the magazine of the finalassembling-machine, hereinafter more particularly described, the edges Hand K and L and M being respectively joined in said machine to makethe-board forming the continuous core shown in Fig. 5.

A special feature of the above-described process is the extremely smallamount of ce.

menting material requisite in consequence of the faces ofthe board orcore being so perfectly smooth. Consequently the little moisturecontained is readily absorbed by the highly-dried board and pa er faceswithout causing any damage or swe ling in the structure of the finishedproduct.

If a heavier and more rigid board is required-for instance, in themanufacture of a very stiff partition lining or board for ceilings orfor more or less fireproof divisionsa somewhat different method ofassembling is necessary. In constructing this heavier board it isnecessary to interpose a thick coating of cementing material between thecore and one or both of the paper faces. After the cement has been fedonto the board-the latter passes between grooved rollers, which form thecementing material on the faces of the board into ridges or rowscorresponding with the grooves of the rollers, while the interveningspaces correspond to the projecting parts of the rollers. These ridgesor rows of cement are leveled by the paper orlining rollers when theboard passes between them and receives its upper and lower faces ofpaper, said cement being squeezed out over the whole surface of thepaper and firmly pressed upon the core to an amount corresponding to thesetting of said lining-rollers and the quality of the cementingmaterial.

Although in the foregoing specification mention has been madeexclusively of paper as a facing material for compo-boards, other sheetfabrics may be employed, or even sheets of metal-such as thin sheetlead, tin or other foil, or thin steelmay be rolled on and cemented tothe core in the manner above described. The surface or surfaces of theboard may also be covered with veneer, or paper and veneer, or paper andmetal, or with veneer and metal, or with metal alone, as aforesaid, oneparticularly useful form having a metal sheet between the wooden coreand the paper faces. Such a construction possesses for certain purposesvery special advantages over any construction of board at present known.

Among the various advantages of the new process for the manufacture ofthese goods may be mentioned the avoiding of strains in the finishedarticle, which are usually caused by the irregular distribution of thecement and its moisture. Owing to the smoothness of the surface and thebetter joining thereof, a very small quantity of cement is needful, anda thoroughly-dried material can take up the moisture thereby introducedwithout causing swelling of the materials, whereas in the present"construction of compo-boards the damp cement not only frequently causesthe wooden slat or piece to twist, but renders the paper faces soft andpliable and less able to hold the wood in position.

The material from which the wood is cut may be of a much cheaper qualitythan now used in compo-boards, because knotty or broken pieces can allbe Worked up without difficulty. Hence the great expense of handling,sorting, and trimming of the slats is avoided. Further, any-sized sheetscan be made with almost equal facility, and especially the thickness ofthe core can be varied within a much wider range.

By the new process boards as thin as onesixteenth of an inch or as thickas an inch or upward can be made with equal facility, the only practicaldifference being the time re quired for the cement to set after passingthe rollers. If desirable, the wood employed may be previouslyfireproofed or waterproofed, or both, before being formed into thecompound board.

A machine for assembling the sections or parts formed by cutting thecompound plank shown in Fig. 4 into three sections will now bedescribed, reference being had to Figs. 6 to 13, inclusive, illustratingsaid machine. The boards 1 cut from the said compound plank are fed intothe magazine 2 of the assenibling-machine one above the other, saidmagazine being preferably arranged with an adjustable opening 66. Freshboards are added continuously at the top as the bottom ones aresuccessively pushed forward against the edge of the previous board bythe double reciprocating clutch-frame or pusher 48 49, which works inguides 4 and is operated by clutch mechanism driven from the maindriving shaft 5 in the following manner. The main driving-shaft 5 hasmounted thereon a fixed gear-wheel 6, engaging with and driving a loosewheel 32, which preferably turns half a revolution to every revolutionof the wheel 6. The wheel 32 carries a cam 33, which engages on everyrevolution with an arm 34, pivoted at 35 and connected to and operatingan arm 36, connected to a pivoted arm 37, to which is attached thesliding clutch 65, mounted on a shaft 38 to rotate therewith. On theshaft 38 are mounted two loose bevel-wheels 39 and 40, gearing with afixed bevel-wheel 41, arranged at the end of the above-mentioneddriving-shaft 5. On said shaft 38 a fixed gear-wheel 42 is arranged,said gear-wheel engaging with a fixed gear-wheel 43, arranged at theinner end of the shaft 44, parallel to a continuation of the abovementioned shaft 38. On the reversely-rotating shafts 38 and 44 gear-wheels45 and 46 are mounted, said gear-wheels engaging with racks 47, arrangedon the lower surfaces of the alternately-acting clutches or pushers 4849, provided with pushing claws or projections 51, pressed up bysprings, which yield under the weight of the boards in the magazine 2when the pushers are retracted. The operation of the above-describedmechan ism is as follows: When the cam 33 on the gear-wheel 32 pushesthe pivoted lever 34 outward against the spring 50, the abovementionedclutch is brought into such a position as to lock the bevel-wheel 40 tothe shaft 38, so that said shaft is driven by means of the .main shaft 5and its bevelwheel 41, thereby moving the pusher 48 in one direction anddriving the pusher 49 in the other direction through the gear-wheel 43and the oppositely-rotating shaft 44. When, however, the said cam 33 isnot in engagement with the lever-arm 34, the spring 50 pulls saidlever-arm inward and operates the above-mentioned clutch to lock thebevelwheel 39 to the shaft 38, thereby causing said shaft to be drivenin the opposite direction by the main shaft 5 through its bevelwheel 41,and so causing the pushers 48 and 49 also to move, respectively, in theopposite directions to the directions in which they moved when the shaft38 was locked to the bevel-wheel 40. By this arrangement I am enabled toget a continuous forward drive for the planks or boards passing from themagazine.

The machine preferably comprises a gluewiper 8, carried by an arm 7 andoperated from the pusher-frames through a connection 9 in such a mannerthat just before each of the boards 1 is pushed forward from themagazine 2 said wiper will rise from the gluetank 10, so as to apply asmall amount of glue or other suitable adhesive to the front edge of theboard, and as the pusher comes forward the connection 9 is so arrangedthat it will permit the arm 7 to fall to allow the board to be pushedforward between the upper and lower guides 11, which are formed as agrid, as will be understood from Figs. 7, 8, and 9. A series of wheels60, driven in any suitable manner, are arranged in front of the wiper,as shown, and are adapted to engage with the upper surface of the boardand carry it forward between the guides 11. A clutch or back-stop 12 isarranged inside the abovementioned upper guides 11, said, clutch orback-stop being preferably in the form of a wire brush or the likepressing against the surface of said board and allowing it to passforward, but not to return. Mounted on said guides I arrange upper andlower dust-fans 13, (see Fig. 6,) adapted to pick up sawdust from thereeeptacl es 14 and dust it over the newlymade glue joints formedbetween the boards in the said assembling-machine. In front of said fansI arrange a top and bottom series of brushes 15, staggered in order tocover the whole surface of the board, as shown in Fig. 7, and adapted tocarry the compo-board core through the machine and to brush. off thesuperfluous glue which has been formed at the joints of the boards, thesaid glue having been previously dusted by the abovementionedsawdust-fans. The brushes 15 are inclosed in a casing 67, to which. issupplied hot air to dry the newly-made joints of the board or core andto carry off through the exhaust-opening 68 the sawdust and glue whichhas been removed by the brushes.

In front of the cleaning-brushes I arrange upper and lower paste-tanks16, from which a coating of paste or cement is conveyed to the boardpassing through the machine by means of brushes 1?, adapted to pick upthe cement from the rollers immersed in the tanks 16. Beyond thepaste-tanks I arrange upper and lower blanketed pressing-rollers 18,suitably heated and adapted, respectively, to press against and spread alining of paper or other suitable covering on the upper and lower facesof the board, the paper or covering being fed from the rolls 20 over theguiding-rollers 21 to the aforementioned pressingrollers 18. Theabove-described pressingrollers rotate at the same speed as the boardand assist the progress thereof.

It will be readily understood that as the whole weight of the top rollerbears on the compo-board as it passes through the machine and presses itagainst the lower roller the top and bottom paper or other coverings arepressed firmly against the board. The resulting core or finished board19 coming from the said pressing-rollers can be trimmed at the edges andcut into lengths and further dealt with as needful.

A special feature of the above-described process is the extremely smallamount of cementing material requisite in consequence of the faces ofthe board or core being so perfectly smooth. Consequently the littlemoisture contained is readily absorbed by the highly-dried board andpaper faces without causing any damage by swelling in the structure ofthe finished product.

If a heavier and more rigid board is requiredfor instance, in themanufacture of a very stiff partition lining or board for ceilings orfor more or less fireproof divisionsa somewhat different method ofassembling is necessary. In constructing this heavier board it isnecessary to interpose a thick coating of cementing material between thecore and one or both of the paper faces. An apparatus for carrying outthis process is shown in Figs. 12 and 13, in which the thick paste orcementing material is fed onto the board from I upper and lowercementtanks 27 through spouts 31. The tanks are joined by a commonfunnel 28, through which the paste is introduced. At the end of thetanks plungers 29 are arranged, adapted to come forward and force thepaste out through the spouts 31 in said tanks against the upper andlower faces of the board. After the paste has been fed onto the boardthe latter passes between grooved rollers 26, which form the cementingmaterial on the faces of the board into ridges or rows correspondingwith the grooves of the rollers,while the intervening spaces correspondto the projecting parts of the rollers. These ridges or rows of cementare leveled by the pressingrollers when the board passes between themand receives its upper and lower faces of paper, said cement beingsqueezed out over the whole surface of the paper and firmly pressed uponthe core to an amount corresponding to the setting of saidlining-rollers and the quality of the cementing material.

What I claim is- 1. l The process of producing compo-board in continuoussheets, consisting in building up deals form pieces of wood, cuttingsaid deals into thin boards, joining a plurality of said thin boardsalong their longitudinaledges to form a compound board, cutting equalboard-sections from said compound board, joining said board-sections attheir edges to form acontinuous sheet of any desired length, applyingadhesive material to both faces of said continuous sheet, spreading alining or facing of suitable material over both adhesive faces of thecontinuous sheet, and subjecting the lined continuous sheet to pressureso that all are firmly pressed together, substantially as described.

2. The process of producing compo-board in continuous sheets, consistingin building up deals from pieces of wood of small and irregular sizes,cutting said deals into thin boards, joining a plurality of said thinboards along their longitudinal edges to form a compound board, cuttingequal board-sections from said compound board, joining saidboard-sections at their edges to form a continuous sheet of any desiredlength, applying adhesive material to both faces of said continuoussheet, spreading a lining or facing of suitable material over both.adhesive faces of the continuous sheet, and subjecting the linedcontinuous sheet to pressure so that all are firmly pressed together,substantially as described.

3. The process of producing compo-board in continuous sheets, consistingin building up deals from pieces of wood, cutting said.

deals into thin boards, joining a plurality of said thin boards alongtheir longitudinal edges to form a compound board, cutting equalboard-sections from said compound board, and joining said board-sectionsat their edges to form a continuous sheet of any desired length,substantially as described.

4. The process of producing compo-board in continuous sheets, consistingin building up deals from pieces of wood of small and irregular sizes,cutting said deals into thin boards, joining a plurality of said thinboards along their longitudinal edges to form a compound board, cuttingequal board-sections from said compound board, and joining saidboard-sections at their edges to form a continuous sheet of any desiredlength, substantially as described.

5. The process of producing compo-board in continuous sheets, consistingin building up deals from pieces of wood cutting said deals into thinboards, joining a plurality of said thin boards along their longitudinaledges to form a compound board, cutting equal board-sections from saidcompound board, joining said board-sections at their edges to form acontinuous sheet of any,de sired length, applying adhesive material toboth faces of said continuous sheet, applying a lining or facing to bothadhesive sides or faces of said sheet, and then subjecting the lined orfaced continuous sheet to pressure so that the elements or layersthereof are firmly squeezed together.

6. The process of producing compo-board in continuous sheets, consistingin building up deals from pieces of Wood of small and ir regular sizes,cutting said deals into thin boards, joining a plurality of said thinboards along their longitudinal edges to form a comound board, cuttingequal board-sections from said compound board, joining saidboard-sections at their edges to form a continuous sheet of any desiredlength, applying adhesive material to both faces of said continuoussheet, applying a lining or facing to both adhesive sides or faces ofsaid sheet, and then subjecting the lined or faced continuous sheet topressure so that the elements or layers thereof are firmly squeezedtogether.

7. The process of producing compo-board in continuous sheets, consistingin building up deals from pieces of Wood, cutting said deals into thinboards, oining a plurality of said thin boards along their longitudinaledges to form a compound board, cutting equal board sections from, saidcompound board, joining said board-sections at their edges to form acontinuous sheet of any desired length, feeding a thick layer of fireand Water proof cement on both faces of said continuous sheet, formingsaid fire and Water proof cement into ridges, spreading a lining orfacing of suitable material on both faces of said continuous sheet overthe ridges of fire and Water proof cement, and subjecting the linedcontinuous sheet to pressure so that the fire and Water proof cement issqueezed out evenly between said linings and sheet over the Wholesurface of both and all are firmly pressed together, substantially asdescribed.

S. The process of producing compo-board in continuous sheets, consistingin building up deals from pieces of Wood of small and irregular sizes,cutting said deals into thin boards, joining a plurality of said thinboards along their longitudinal edges to form a compound board, cuttingequal board-sections from said compound board,joining said boardsectionsat their edges to form a continuous sheet of any desired length, feedinga thick layer of fire and Water proof cement on both faces of saidcontinuous sheet forming said fire and Water proof cement into ridges,spreading a lining or facing of suitable material on both faces of saidcontinuous sheet over the ridges of fire and Water proof cement, andsubjecting the lined continuous sheet to pressure so that the fire andWater proof cement is squeezed out evenly between said linings and sheetover the Whole surface of both and. all are firmly pressed together,substantially as described.

9. The process of producing compo-board in continuous sheets, consistingin building up deals from pieces of Wood, cutting said deals into thinboards, joining a plurality of said thin boards along their longitudinaledges to form a compound board, cutting equal board-sections from saidcompound board, joining said board-sections at their edges to form acontinuous sheet of any de-' sired length, feeding a thick layer of fireand Water proof cement on one face of said continuous sheet, formingsaid fire and Water proof cement into ridges, spreading a lining orfacing of suitable material on both faces of said continuous sheet overthe ridges of fire and Water proof cement and subjecting said lined orfaced continuous sheet to pressure so that the fire and Water proofcement is squeezed out evenly between said lining and sheet and over theWhole surface of both and all are firmly pressed together, substantiallyas described.

10. The process of producing compo-board in continuous sheets consistingin building up deals from pieces of Wood of small and irregular sizes,cutting said deals into thin boards along their longitudinal edges toform a compound board, cutting equal boardsections from said compoundboard, joining said board-sections at their edges to form a continuoussheet of any desired length, feeding a thick layer of fire and Waterproof cement on one face of said continuous sheet, forming said fire andWater proof cement into ridges, spreading a lining or facing of suitablematerial on both faces of said continuous sheet over the ridges of fireand Water proof cement, and subjecting said lined or faced continuoussheet to pressure so that the fire and Waterproof cement is squeezed outevenly between said lining and sheet and over the Whole surface of bothand all are firmly pressed together, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing Witnesses.

GEORGE SKAATS MAYHElV.

Witnesses:

LEoNARD E. HAYNEs, ARTHUR V. STEPHENS.

